1. Technical Area of the Invention
The present invention relates, in general, to printers that employ an inked ribbon and, in particular, to ribbon break detectors for such printers.
2. Art Statement
For printers that use an inked ribbon, one possible source of malfunction is a ribbon feed failure such as a break in the ribbon. A basic technique for detecting ribbon breaks is to monitor the tension in the ribbon. Also, a break may be detected optically by a sensor located along the ribbon path. Such break detection, however, tends to be unreliable, particularly for thermal printing where heat buildup may occur at the printhead and cause sudden damage to the printhead and surrounding apparatus.